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Timeline of modern history (1940-1949)
(Continues from years 1930-1939) 1940s: The Great Game 1940 Events in Eastasia *'Sino-Tibetan War:' **'Wuhan hit by plague.' Panic-stricken civilians and routed troops spread the Great Asian Plague throughout Western China, but Horde and Tibetan forces remain intact. **'2nd Battle of Wuhan.' Led by Chinese warlord Leng Ruying, Tibetan and Horde forces recapture Wuhan from the Empire of the Rising Sun, taking advantage of the delibitating effects of the plague. **'Lhasa recaptured'. The Xinyuan garrison in Lhasa, debilitated and starving, surrenders to Indo-Tibetan forces led by Iskandar Pasha, the Nawab of Sikkim. **'Shanghai overrun'. ESL forces, enjoying a superiority ration of 6 to 1, crush the Federal garrison at Shanghai and annex it for the Empire. **'South China falls'. Marching northwards across the mountains of former French Indochina, the all-French Bonaparte Regiment of the Imperial Army captures Yunnan and Guanxi, effectively leaving Federal and Xinyuan forces in control of Guangdong and Fujian. The Chinese race is left without a home, except for a hundred thousand or so square miles centred around Hong Kong. Events in Eurasia *'Great Asian Plague:' **'The Plague reaches the fringes of the Ural and Kuznetsk mountains', killing thousands and incapacitating Vidalist infrastructure and industry. A harsh quarantine is imposed, and in a speech from Vidalopol, "It is right and fitting that these who go before us sacrifice their lives to build up the glory of Communism, that Vidalia may remain a shining example of what the human spirit may endure. We the living salute the glorious dead and hope that we have the fortitude to emulate this same example." In reality, survivors of the plagues are attempting to escape into Western Vidalia, but are cut down by machine gun teams installed by the Red Guard to enforce the quarantine. **'Vidalia loses 5% of its population.' As a result, the fringes of the Urals and the Kuznetsk regions are completely depopulated as the plague continues its route southwards. These areas would eventually be ceded to the SAO as part of the Maratha Conference 9 years later. Events in Africa *'War of the Angolan Succession' **'The war continues on and on', but the idea of a free and civil Africa is now as good as shattered. Cantonments throughout Western-Central Africa have become little more than slave camps overseen by army officials of all sides. **'Vidalist agents assassinate Field-Marshal Swala.' Bernard Swala, a gifted and charismatic leader most instrumental in organising the destruction of the Derg in 1937, was killed when a box of Cuban cigars given to him exploded in his face. Nonetheless, he managed to put the Trans-Sahelian Tribe on a good military footing before someone offered him a new pack of smokes which he originally had premonitions about. As King Lawrence's right hand man, his loss would deal a severe blow to dreams of a united Africa led by House Bananius. **'Brigadier Laibongá executed for war crimes.' Jose Laibongá, the mastermind of the coup of 25 March 1936, is captured while trying to escape through Salviatist Namibia. In an extraordinary turn of events he is subsequently faced with a drumhead court consisting of staff of the CFNE, Federal agents, KGV officials and South African military officials. Laibongá faces a firing squad at dawn on 19 August at Robben Island State Prison. **'Trans-Sahelian Tribe grows larger'. Due to Field-Marshal Bernard Swala's hard work, the Trans-Sahelian Tribe now rivals the Moroccan Empire in size, after having eliminated Vidalist resistance in the Congo and invading South African Rhodesia. **'Massacre at the Zambezi.' The Royal Army annihilates a lager of 200 German civilians at a bridge near the Victoria Falls. King Lawrence in an address from Kampala declares, "Today, rejoice oh Africa. Freedom will soon belong to your sons and daughters again!" Events in Oceania *'Brave New World Order'. With the sundering of the former United States of America in the Second Civil War, the whole of Oceania is now a house divided. **'Atlantic Federation:' The self-proclaimed heir to the USA and the British Commonwealth, the Atlantic Federation is a sprawling mass of former nations, covering north-eastern America, the British Isles (exculding Ireland), the Luso-American enclave of Macao, Eastern Australia, Hawaii, Aotearoa and several possessions throughout the Caribbean. **'Southern Confederacy:' Born out of the struggles between black people and white racial supremacists, the Southern Confederacy is a white racialist state that practises slavery in the former Southeastern United States. **'Vidalist Republic of North America:' Covering a swathe of land from former California down to the borders of Mexico, this cannot really be considered a nation, but rather a collection of rural farming communities populated by all sorts of "unsavoury" pacifists, runaway black slaves, Red Indian tribes, New Ager paganists, and other folk unworthy of either the Confederacy or the Federation. *'The Tapioca Affair.' In the summer of 1940, a diplomatic crisis broke out in the New World: the wife of the Jefe of the Bolivarian Republic, General Tomas Teodemiro Tapioca, ran away from her sumptuous palace in San Theodoros, reputedly to elope with a Confederate sailor with too much time on his hands. **'Casus belli:' The elopement resulted in a diplomatic crisis when Meche Tapioca was found later in a seedy hotel in Houston, naked and strangled to death. Naturally, General Tapioca's sexual pride was dented, and he tried to assuage it by sending some lowly colonels to literally yell words in the faces of the Federal Embassy in San Theodoros, which would have been most unbecoming for the Mother Superior of the Most Immaculate Holy Order of Santa María de Bogotá, but to no avail, given that the Atlantic Federation was neither in control of nor responsible for the actions of the Southern Confederacy. **'Start of the Confederate War.' Enraged, the General recalled his troops from the African front, invaded Mexico, annexed Cuba and Jamaica from the Federation, besieged Houston and Jacksonville, and even sent agents to level the White House, not realising that the capital had been moved to Ottawa. By August, Bolivarian troops and marines were raping, looting and killing throughout the Missisippi River Valley (helped in no small way by countless American Jews and blacks for whom being sold to Asia and Salviatia as slaves was not an option). And the Confederate leadership holed up in Charlotte, seemed next... **'Operation White Christmas'. On Christmas Day, the Atlantic Federation finally responds and sends an expeditionary force to meet the Bolivarians. Franz-Heinrich von Salviat scores a major coup for the European movement by offering to ship supplies over for rehabilitation on the understanding that the Confederacy was to be preserved. In a blitzkrieg battle, Federal General Omar Patton and Confederate General George Bradley launch an armoured assault on the North American East Coast, driving Bolivarian forces back all the way to Miami. The advanced is prevented from being flanked by the deployment of Federal aircraft and Confederate guerillas on the east bank of the Missisipi River. By the beginning of the following year, Florida is secure and the CFNE relief force can begin shipping humanitarian supplies into Confederate territory. Bolivarian prisoners of war, wary of the fate that awaits them if they were repatriated, stay on as indentured labour, while others are taken back to Europe. **'Bolivarian Republic loses brownie points'. Because of how it chose to renege on its promise to support South African claims to territory during the War of the Angolan Succession, the CFNE withdraws its ambassadors from Tapiocapolis. This does not matter to General Tapioca anyhow, given that he has promises of aid from the ESL in Asia. 1941 Events in Eastasia *'Sino-Tibetan War:' **'Great Asian Plague reaches Eastern China', killing an estimated 100,000 people in 7 months and frustrating Federal attempts to orchestrate a defence of Hong Kong. **'Battle of Guangzhou'. ESL forces breach the Federal line and capture Hong Kong, but Xinyuan forces in Northwestern India continue to resist. **'Chennai Conference'. India and Tibet sign a non-aggression pact, stipulating withdrawal of Tibetan armies to Xizang, Tibet, and Qinghai in exchange for the Dalai Lama's safe passage back to Lhasa. **'Battle of Ordos'. In late winter, SAO and ESL forces clash near Ordos in Mongolia. It is understood that the Horde commander only wanted to "borrow" ESL supplies for his men, but the raid results in the ESL declaring war on the New Golden Horde. *'Hajj Incident'. Pilgrims from Mecca contract Wafa's disease, a contagious disease which was thought all but extinct years ago and now creates a pandemic throughout the Hejaz. Despite calls for revenge on Shiites who are thought to have deliberately infected Sunni pilgrims, the Caliphate appeals for calm on all sides, although TILSA is forced to act and some individuals are reported interned in Evin, Tehran. Events in Oceania *'War of the Confederacy rages on.' **'Bolivarian Republic annexes California.' On the advice of field-marshall Luiz Baténbergo, Tapioca reroutes the Bolivarian assault on North America to the more poorly defended California. Given that the Goldstein Brigade believed more in "giving peace a chance", the whole Southern Pacific Coast is peacefully taken by April, its denizens living in uneasy coexistence with the more militaristic Bolivarians. **'The Federation strikes back.' Valparaiso, Isla de Pascua and Callao are bombed into submission by Federal naval forces as the Australian brigade arrives in South America. **'Battle of Seattle fought between Horde forces, and RB-GB defenders'. Seattle is sacked in the middle of winter by SAO forces. Although the Bolivarian army and air force claim victory, in reality Seattle was a successful raid by Horde slavers to capture women, armaments and commodities for transport back to Siberia. Events in Africa *'War of the Angolan Succession': **'South Africa is now fighting for its life'. Trans-Sahelian forces have overrun former Rhodesia and have taken Gaborone, the administrative cantonment. With Bolivarian forces and resources diverted away from Africa, the South African war machine may well grind to a halt. General Jansen Smuts is relieved of his post, and is replaced with Renatus van Pruitt. 1942 Events in Eastasia *'Suicide bombers strike Baku.' Vidalian oil rigs came under attack by suicide bombers, killing 15 and dealing hundreds of thousands of roubles' worth of damage. The KGV stated that it was the result of "rotten Muslim obscurants seeking a path to Paradise." *'Outbreak of Great Asian Plague in South Asia:' **'Plague is transmitted by pilgrims' from the Ganges back into various parts of India; the death toll of this is still unknown to this day. **'Sectarian violence hits the Sultanate of Delhi' as Hindus and Muslims accuse one another of deliberately spreading the plague. In crowded conditions and overstretched medical facilities, over 2,000 die in 10 days of rioting. Similar incidents on smaller scales erupt in Agra, Pune and Goa. **'Plague reported by TILSA in Afghanistan'. The Caliphal Government later on confirmed that there were some deaths, but only 300 deaths were reported. *'Horde Civil War'. A civil war breaks out in Horde territory after the Arch-Shaman, Jambhando Buugyikontsen, is poisoned along with leading Horde military governers while discussing the matter of succeeding the late Ungern Khan. Although there are many warlords fighting one another, there are patriot factions, Xinyuan loyalists, Muslims, Ur-Turkic adherents, ESL-dominated factions and Vidalists. 1943 *'Great Asian Plague reaches the Turkish coast. '''European governments rush humanitarian assistance to Istanbul in order to contain the plague. *'World food prices soar to new highs.' Thanks to the destruction of agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa due to the War of the Angolan Succession, the production of vegetables, beef and rice has been cut by as much as a third. Long lines are common in Eastern Europe, while bread riots are a common frequency in Vidalia (as are crackdowns on protestors by the KGV, who blame it on the renegade Forrestiery movement). *'Famine hits Trans-Sahelia.' Over 1 in 5 individuals are malnourished, and the birth rate has fallen to negative. Forces fighting in Africa now consist of young children. The only nations not complaining about food prices are the Atlantic Federation and the SAO. *'Rebellions in Egyptian territory'. After years of hard living, nomadic tribes throughout the Tripoli and Khartoum cantonments have risen in revolt, testing the Vidalians' resolve to hold on to these areas. *'Sino-Tibetan War ends'. Chinese forces occupying India and Burma agree to surrender in exchange for safe passage to Horde territory. The area that they originally occupied is annexed to India, which combines them to become the Sultanate of New Bengal, ruled by the military commander Iskandar Pasha. In Eastern China, however, survivors who failed to make it to Macao are interned by the ESL and are shipped back north into ESL territory, never to be seen again. 1944 Events in Eastasia *'Jihadian trains sabotaged.' Several explosions rocked train stations in Aqaba, Sinop and Tabriz on 24 October. TILSA states that the explosions were plots by Vidalists attempting to overthrow the Caliphate, and that 20 people were detained for questioning. Events in Oceania *'Operation White Lie'. The Federal Resources for Anti-Terrorism (also known as "FRAT") stages an uprising in Mexico which quickly goes awry. By the end of June, many Mexican cities are now little more than prison camps guarded by homicidal Bolivarian taskmasters, but the Alcazar Army is out in the field and conducting a guerilla raid against Bolivarian forces from the jungles of Chiapas and the mountains of Guatemala. *'ESL claims Aotearoa and Hawaii'. Imperial forces at the behest of General Tapioca recommence the war with the Federation by seizing Macao and then invading Hawaii and Aotearoa. While Hawaii is claimed and used as a base to conduct operations against Federal shipping, the ESL is unable to take Aotearoa. They succeed in capturing Christchurch and overrunning Melbourne in Australia, but Federal forces elude them and conduct a guerilla war against them for the rest of the war from Aotearoa's South Island and Tasmania. 1945 *'War of the Angolan Succession:' **'Great Asian Plague reaches Iskandariyah', killing an estimated 50,000 people in 7 months. The loss of manpower is more than the Egyptian war machine can bear, and Egyptian morale sinks to its lowest since Egypt entered the war. **'Cairo taken by rebel forces'. A powerful tribal leader, Sheikh Saleh ben Waled, has taken Cairo from Egyptian forces, and offered the area to Jihadia. **'Riots in Kampala'. A South African breakthrough in Botswana and the destruction of 3 Trans-Sahelian armies in the Zambia has caused a revolt in Kampala, demanding that King Lawrence abdicate. French mercenaries, acting as observers, note that many shots were fired around the Royal Palace in Kampala. **'Vidalia dispatches troops to Egypt'. Despite the powerful weapons such as state-of-the-art tanks and fighter jets at their disposal, Vidalia discovers that it is harder to maintain the existence of Egypt, as suicide bomb attacks by Muslims in urban areas and guerilla raids in the desert by the Lord's Resistance Army, a recently created rebel group operating throughout Africa, take their toll on Vidalist forces throughout Egypt. 1947 *'War of the Confederacy:' **'Coup in Tapiocapolis.' Because of increasing prices and war weariness at home, General Tapioca is forced to resign from his post as Jefe, and is replaced by another military officer, Nino Morales. An armistice is signed with the Atlantic Federation, whereby Bolivarian forces are to be withdrawn from North America, ceding the cantonments of Las Vegas, San Angeles, Santa Fe and Jacksonville, while the Federation is to cede Lima and Santiago Tapiocana to the Bolivarian Republic. The Caribbean is to be demilitarised and the Alcazar Army is to rule over it as a buffer zone. **'Confederacy Leadership exiled'. Now occupying former Mexico, the Missisipi and Jacksonville, the Atlantic Federation goes against its word and maroons the entire Confederate leadership on Baja, now a desolate and arid peninsula. Von Salviat is furious and there are whispers of fears of the old America coming back throughout Milan, Siegstadt, Munich and Geneva. *'War of the Angolan Succession:' **'Showdown in Angola'. Out of the chaos of fighting between different factions in Angola, two have emerged: the first is a patriots' faction, led by a junta of different warlords and the second is led by a Vidalist agent, Ricardo Caravalho. Armed and supplied by almost every Great Power on earth, the war in Angola will continue until mediation a decade later. **'Vidalgrad treaty. Eager to resolve the Egyptian conflict, Jihadia and Vidalia sign the treaty on 29 June. The treaty stipulated that economic cooperation with Salviatia was to cease in 15 years' time in exchange for the creation of a Jihadian protectorate over the Iskandariyyah cantonment. 1948 *'''Celebrations in Egyptian cities. Joyous celebrations break out throughout Iskandariyyah cantonment as Jihadian forces enter Egypt to enforce rule in the wake of a Vidalian pullout. *'Papal States dissolved.' Due to the dwindling flock of eager followers, the Papal States is formally dissolved, and the Holy See is moved to Bogotá, Cartagena cantonment in the Bolivarian Republic, at the invitation of its new caudillo, Nino Morales. 1949 *'War of the Angolan Succession' **'Renatus van Pruitt arrives at Kampala' and asks for an audience with Lawrence Bananius. The Treaty of Kampala is signed, ending the war for South Africa. The Trans-Sahelian Tribe is dissolved into its component parts, each of which is to be administered by a viceroy appointed by the South African Republic. The family of Julius Bananius is to be exiled immediately to the ESL. * * *'Maratha Conference'. At the Maratha Conference held at Pune, the Tibetan Empire is partitioned but left alone, ending its decade-long feud with the ESL. The commanderies of Qinghai and Xizang are ceded to the ESL, and Tibet agrees to become an ESL protectorate, with the blessings of the Salviatian and Vidalian delegates to the Conference.